Mardi Gras

Last year Izzy found the baby in our King Cake for Mardi Gras celebration.  This meant she was responsible for this year's celebration.  Izzy took her role seriously and made a most delicious King Cake filled with a scrumptious cream cheese and walnut filling.  Yummy!  She's been making tremendous gains in the kitchen and needed very little help from her mother.

We brought our King Cake with us on the way to see the Ice Castles which was a delightful treat in our hotel.  Of the four of us, Victoria is the only one who hasn't found the baby.  She was desperately wanting it this year and very frustrated as she initially thought she didn't get it.  The three us dug through our pieces but couldn't locate it either.  We then returned to Victoria's piece and, after pulling apart what was left over, discovered she in fact had the baby all along.  Now next year's celebration is up to her for planning though I suspect a big sister will be very willing to pitch in an help out.

 

Spread the Love

In January Izzy approached me about an idea that had been brewing.  She actually created a powerpoint presentation and showed it to me.  Her project was called "Spread the Love".  She wanted her entire 6th grade class to create Valentine's Day cards to be sent to someone who needed a bit more love during the holiday.  Originally she wanted to adopted a floor in the children's hospital but was informed that, due to the pandemic, the hospital was only accepting monetary gifts.  She was a bit bummed but didn't want to give up on her idea.  We brainstormed about other groups that might enjoy being recipients of this project.  Izzy settled on the idea of adopting a retirement community / nursing home.  The bigger question now was which one.  We came up with randomly picking a state/city, choosing the nursing home Grandma Lois lived in, or one locally.  While working with her teacher on her idea, three other classmates stepped up to help out.  One of them has grandparents who are living in such a community in New Hampshire.  We then reached out to them who were ecstatic about partnering with the 6th grade class.  As a mother, it was so wonderful to see my daughter dream up an idea and watch it come to fruition.  

This of course would not have been possible without Izzy's home room teacher who was her mentor, Ms. Gallagher.  She was Izzy's 4th grade teacher and moved to 6th grade just this year.  When Izzy learned that Ms. Gallagher was going to be her teacher again, even the pandemic couldn't put a damper on this.  Ms. Gallagher helped Izzy by creating time for her to present her project to the class.  She allowed Izzy and the three other classmates to stay inside during recess to created Valentine's Day card goodie bags that each student used fabricate their cards.  (A shout out to Victoria who also helped stuff 80 goodie bags at home for Izzy.)  And she helped collect cards from cohort B as these are the days Izzy is not in school in person.

On the day of Valentine Card pick, we counted at least 70 cards had been made.  Some of them were quite superb and thoughtful.  We went through and read every single one at home.  Some had riddles.  Some had hand made word searches.  A few were 3D or had pockets with hidden goodies inside.  Some told a story while others bordered on being pen pal letters.

Carla, the activities director at Harvest Hills, was such a delight to work with on this project.  I was afraid that Izzy would receive the same push back that she did from Children's Hospital given the ongoing pandemic.  However Carla was more than thrilled to help.  What we learned was that Izzy's classmate's grandparents live in the adjoining retirement community, The Woodlands.  Harvest Hills is the assisted living / nursing home.  Carla wanted to know if the cards should be delivered to the residents at The Woodlands.  I posed this question to Izzy.  Ultimately she decided to stay with Harvest Hills as she recognized the difference between the two locations after visiting Grandma Lois several times when back in Nebraska and felt the cards would "spread the love" more in this location.  Carla even sent back a few pictures of residents who received the Valentine's Day cards.  I'm so proud of the impact Izzy has made.

 

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day celebration was a bit low key this year.  We opted to make Valentine's themed cupcakes and watch a movie.  The kids were at their father's on the holiday.  To celebrate with them, they were surprised with small goodie bags when dropped off with strict instructions to not open until Sunday.  That day I was was awoken to them calling to video chat so they could open the bags with me present.  It was so cute to see them giddy and unable to wait till later.  When they returned home, they showered me with hand crafted cards and pictures.  Those I've grown to love as they come truly form the heart.

Super Bowl LV

This past year Micah has taken a very keen interest in football.  He spends countless hours reading about the game, player statistics, and running plays in his room with his Teenymates.  This year he was eager to stay up and watch the football game.  Stereotypic of girls, Izzy and Victoria wanted to watch the halftime show.  Everyone was required to take a nap in order to stay up for the entire game on a school night.  Not surprisingly, there was no fighting when it was time to lay down.  While the rest of us was going to rout for Kansas City, Micah was a bit torn.  In the end, Mahomes won out which led to some sadness when the lost.

Rather than a sit down meal, we made our own pandemic mini-super bowl party spread.  Mine included an adult beverage as well.

 

Happy New Year!

Unlike most years, the turn of the New Year was something we all were excited for.  This holiday is typically greeted in our dreams as I can't think of the last time I stayed up to see the clock turn midnight.  None of the kids have stayed up though they have asked on a few occasions.  Typically their behavior from being tired ends up having them head off to bed.

We broke out the china for a toast to the new year complete with sparkling juice.

Cheers!

Here's to 2021 being a kinder year to us all!

Our first take of 2021 didn't turn out so well.  I guess were forgot to be a mirror image.  Plus, I don't think the year 1202 was far off from how we all felt 2020 went...ha!

 

Skiing Butternut

One of our winter traditions has been to go skiing at Jay Peak.  With COVID increasing and the changes in travel restrictions in MA and VT, making our way there was not a possibility.  We therefore looked to more local places and traveled west to the Berkshires.  We spent two days skiing at Butternut which was a perfect fit for the levels we are currently at. 

We spent time in the learning area for a refresher.  Izzy was such a wonderful help in coaching Micah.  I was very proud of both Micah and Victoria for not giving up when they got frustrated.

Our next stop was to the ski lift.  This was Victoria's least favorite part and never mastered getting off of it without falling down or taking me with her.  But she kept going.  Micah, on the other hand, never needed my help.  In fact, Izzy and him went off on their own.

One of the reasons we chose Butternut was their tubing course.  None of us have gone tubing and were thrilled to try.  We went back a second time to go tubing at night under the lights.  This was a bit more of a rambunctious group as families with younger children were not present.  We were told by one of the employees if you tube in the last group of the day, the final 30 minutes is a free for all without rules.  I'm not sure what that might look like but was glad we were not present.

While I made a deal with Izzy that we had to spend time on the learner course for her brother and sister, I promised her that we would head to the mountain the second day.  Given that Micah improved dramatically from last year, these two headed off together.  It's only a matter of time before the both of them head off to more challenging courses.  Victoria and I were paired to make our way down which was slow going.  After taking a hard tumble, she was done resulting in walking down the rest of the way.

We heard through the rumor mill from several local folks that there was a whimsical candy store down town.  The rumors turned out to be very much true.  My favorite was Victoria's find; a ginormous ring pop which should be called a bracelet pop. 

 

Go Pixel Yourself

Looking for a fun holiday activity in December that also social distanced appropriately lead us to Go Pixel Yourself.  For anyone into taking selfies, this would be your heaven.  There was 11 themed rooms that you could take as many pictures or videos you wished.  Santa being one of the themed room was a gem!

Several rooms had changing, interactive backgrounds.  This one allowed you to be in your own comedy.

None of us could get over how many quarters were used to create this chaise lounge.